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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

WIP It Wednesday: Damian Rescues Savannah (Masters at Arms)

First, just wanted to ask for your vote in the Cover of the Month contest. VOTE NOW THROUGH SATURDAY, NOV. 26 at http://yougottareadcovers.blogspot.com/ (#14 on list). If you love Master Adam's chest and this cover as much as *I* do, I'd appreciate your vote. I don't know the exact time voting ends, so vote early! Thanks so much for your consideration!

Now, in honor of that awesome cover, rather than another snippet from my upcoming release, I decided to go back to the beginning of Damian and Savannah's story, the Section Two prequel in Masters at Arms.

This is the scene after Damian has rescued Savannah (Savi) from the sadists at her father's hotel. (He's not aware that she's a sex slave for her father, but thinks she might be a call girl.) She's just awoken from an exhausted sleep to find a stranger (who looks like her fantasy idol, Orlando Bloom) in the bed and is now beginning to worry about what her father and his partner (Lyle) will do to punish her for losing two of their business clients (the sadists in the snippet). The "final plan" she refers to is her suicide, which she plans to carry out when she gets home, no longer able to continue to "live" the way she's been forced to live since childhood, but most especially since becoming a sex slave a year earlier.

What now? Lyle and her father would be furious. She’d never
lost them a client before. Last night, she’d lost two. Her punishment would be
severe. She opened her eyes and glanced toward the door. Where had Lyle gone?
When would he be back? She supposed her father would send a car for her. They
knew they didn’t have to worry about her running away. The threat of living a
hellish life as a street whore would keep her tethered in her velvet chains.

Savannah began to shake.

“Shhh. It’s okay.” The man on the bed—Damián—reached out a
hand to her, but she pulled her body away. He let his hand come to rest on the
mattress between them, as if he were training a dog to get used to him by small
degrees. His brown skin contrasted sharply with the white sheets. Exotic. So
different from the men who could afford her.

No, he wasn’t her client. That she knew. So who was he? She
shivered and returned his gaze, seeing regret, pity. She didn’t want or need
anyone’s pity.

“I don’t know you.”

“I work here at the hotel.”

Oh, Lord! The bus boy! She remembered him from the
restaurant. How had she come to be in bed with him? Had anything happened?
Clearly, she’d zoned out. Had he forced himself on her while her mind was out
of her body?

No. The concern in the man’s warm-chocolate eyes told her he
wasn’t a threat. She didn’t think so, anyway. His pupils were so large, his
eyes almost looked black. Her instincts regarding men were more than a little
warped. Still, something began to melt inside her. The image of him barging
into the room last night carrying a…a fire extinguisher? She tried to keep from
smiling, but couldn’t help herself. So incongruous with the type of rescue she’d
needed.

Damián raised an eyebrow, then smiled back. His white teeth
against a bronzed face sent a flock of swallows to flight inside her stomach. She
giggled.

She shook her head. “No. Against the rules.” Tears stung the
backs of her eyelids. “No one’s ever come to my rescue before.” She turned
away. Don’t let him get inside your head,
Savi. This stranger was even more dangerous than the sadists. He made her
feel vulnerable. She needed to keep her wits about her if she was going to keep
the walls of her fortress intact.

Until she could get home and put her final plan into motion,
she’d do well to remember that men weren’t safe or honorable.

But Damián had held her for hours without taking advantage
of her. Amazing man.

She looked back at him. “Thank you.”

“De nada.”

Then she realized what his actions had cost him. “Oh, God.
Your job.”

A bus boy probably needed every paycheck just to survive.
She assessed him. He wore a polo uniform shirt—which he filled out better than
any polo she’d ever seen—and inexpensive black jeans.

He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. But she doubted he was
truly that nonchalant. He’d be fired, if he hadn’t been already, all because of
her. Unfair. Yet another victim of her father’s and Lyle’s ruthlessness. His
face blurred as tears welled in her eyes. “I’m so sorry to have caused you so
much trouble.”

He leaned closer. She didn’t back away this time, but her
heart began beating faster.

“I’d do it again,” he whispered. “No regrets, Savannah. No
one should hurt you like that.”

She closed her eyelids and swallowed. Damián’s fingertip
brushed away a tear that rolled from the corner of her eye. His hand felt warm
against her chilled skin. A jolt of electricity zapped her clit—and not the
kind of zap the sadists had delivered, either. Her eyes opened wider. No man
had ever caused a sexual response in her.

When he pulled his hand back, she fought the urge to lean
toward him. How could she feel so safe with this stranger?

Dangerous. She needed to get away before he got under her
skin. She instinctively knew that opening herself up to his kindness would just
result in even more intense pain when she left him to return to Master. Her
life, her body, were not hers.

“I have to get home.”

Damian and Savannah (now Savi) will reunite briefly in Nobody's Hero (due out in December). Their romance will come out in February, Nobody's Perfect, as my two most broken souls find love and happiness with each other—at last.

My
writing style is more of a SERIAL than a series--complete with
cliffhangers and characters who continue to work on their relationship
issues in subsequent novels. (Yes, the heroes and heroines from
earlier romances will have recurring roles as they progress toward their
ultimate Happily Ever Afters). So skipping any of the
novel-length installments will make the subsequent romance subplots in
the "serial" less enjoyable.

But the good thing is that there are ONLY two
novels out so far, so it will be easy to catch up! See below for ordering details!

You won't enjoy Nobody's Hero as much if you haven't read Masters at Arms and Nobody's Angel first, because Adam and Karla's relationship actually began nine years early in sections one and five of Masters—and continued to grow in Angel.

1 comment:

You would think that, since I've already read it, I wouldn't get so emotionally invested in the scene. I can't WAIT for their book to be out (although I'll give you a slight break from my nagging once Adam and Karla are complete... maybe). *WEG*